Research into the history of Football in Falkirk district : mainly concentrating on the the period up to 1945 I like to dig through the newspapers from the days of yore to find little vignettes that were rarely included in the published histories.
From the ugly side to the downright obscure, just don't expect me to write about anything too obvious ....

Tuesday, 24 December 2013

I have selected this 'best' Falkirk FC
XI because of all the nonsense about modern players. Don't get me
wrong, not slagging the current folk, I just prefer to research
Falkirk FC pre-WWII.

Obviously I never saw any of these
players play, so I am going somewhat on [lies, damned lies &]
statistics, but it is much more than that. Match reports &
commentary tell you more than just numbers. So partly this will be my
perceived knowledge of the warmth felt for players.

This was difficult, I may have got some
bits wrong, but since the picture of Falkirk is still incomplete, I
too make errors.

Chosen in the 2-3-5 formation which was
ever present until the early sixties, I give you.

Goalkeeper – Thomas Ferguson – From Dennyloanhead – still the club's most played
player, there is a reason for this

Right-Back – Thomas Scott – From Denny – Second most games for the club; he was
solid.

Left-Back
– William Leishman – From Camelon – He played 197 games yet
never scored, stuck to his job.

Right-Half
– Jock Drummond – From Alva – Capped when we were still
non-league, sadly spent most of his career with the orange Glaswegian
bigots.

Left-Half
– William Dougal – From Bonnybridge – Solid, did everything
you need from a Left-Half until the money lured him South.

Centre-Half
- Thomas Townsley – From California – This was my first problem
[John Anderson or Thomas Townsley] but Tom Townsley was more
attacking [he played more Central Midfield when Anderson was more a
defender].

Inside-Right
– Alex Stark – From Falkirk – I chose Alex because he made the
club: from 1885 to 1895 he was there, he scored our goals, he is
forgotten because professionals were more important.

Outside-Right
– John Simpson – Born in Pendleton, Lancs, but brought up in
Laurieston from the age of two - From 1908 till 1912 he was the best
Outside-Right in the World, for half of that he played for God's only
club.

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

It
is a very complicated thing trying to tell Falkirk's highest ever
goalscorer, and frankly when you look at the books it is not
surprising. Most books name Douglas Moran as the club's top scorer
with the handy [post-war] caveat. Without saying a word against the
venerable Mr Moran, the simple fact is that several years earlier
another man scored many more goals for the club : Kenneth Dawson.

The
main problem is that right in the middle of Kenny's career was the
whole messy affair of WWII.

A
huge bloke [for the time] Kenny Dawson hailed from Forres in
Morayshire [lack of DOB or any good biographical detail is a
repetitive thing with Kenny], but the earliest that is known of him
is as a very young outside-left with Nairn County [I have read he had
previously been with junior side Forres Thistle, but cannot
substantiate this]

Nairn County c 1933 [Kenny
Dawson bottom right]

The
scouts of Sheffield United were clearly busy for he was signed up
with the club by the end of the season. Whatever happened down south
it never worked out for young Kenny as by the end of the 1933/34 he
was back in the Highland League this time playing with Forres
Mechanics, which is when Falkirk swooped.

Forres Mechanics 1934

Falkirk
signed Kenny at the beginning of 1935 and the young outside-left was
soon blooded in the end of season Stirlingshire & Infirmary Cup
matches. To say the least he impressed: scoring on début against the
'shire and ending with twelve goals from eight matches due to a
fantastic double hat-trick against King's Park in the Stirlingshire
Cup Final.

Falkirk
had been truly dreadful in the League that season, seeing the club
relegated for the first time in their history, but in Division 2
Kenny teamed up with seemingly unstoppable outside-right Alex
Carruthers and centre-forward Bobby Keyes to blast every other team
out of the reckoning, and with a whole s**t load of goals came
straight back up. Kenny scored the [still] record most League goals
scored from outside-left [39] which obviously brought the scouts
sniffing.

Kenny
continued to score regularly from the wing in the top division
[though understandably not as highly] right up until Blackpool came
up with a reputed £2500 bid for his services. even back then this
was too much for a club like Falkirk to turn down, so Kenny packed
his bags to try his luck in England once again.

With
happen-stance a chap called Adolf Hitler decided to attempt to shut
down normal British Domestic football about this time and all players
were sent back to their place of residence, and guess what? Kenny had
only the year before married a girl from Bainsford so returned to the
district and the team he was always destined to play for .....

Due
to wartime restrictions on travel the just started 1939/40 season was
scrapped and the league was split into two regionial leagues, Falkirk
being placed in the Eastern League. Except for Hearts & Hibs this
was a very weak competition, and although Falkirk won in the end
[Kenny being top scorer] they were well beaten in the end-of-season
deciding match v Western champions Rangers.

Again
wartime travel restrictions had a part to play in Kenny's career, and
in 1944 Kenny's new job took him to Glasgow, so this meant a move to
the Hi Hi, for the remainder of the war.

The
season after the resumption of footballing normality, Kenny returned
to his spiritual home of Brockville Pk. He was clearly no longer the
lightning fast, goalscoring winger of the immediate pre-war period,
but he was good enough to hold down a place in a club that had come
out of the war in a much weaker position than that in which they had
entered it. Kenny played out the rest of his career, in and out of
the side, occasionally showing moments of his old self, often showing
his age until he finally hung up his boots in 1950.

Falkirk FC c 1947

After
football Kenny reputedly opened a tobacconists on Thornhill Road in
the Grahamston part of Falkirk before disappearing off the radar...

Scored
five goals in the Scottish League Division 2 v Cowdenbeath (A)
February 1st 1936

Played
for Scottish FA XI v British Empire Army XI at Tynecastle Pk,
Edinburgh, 24th April 1940

Season

Div 1

Div 2

SCu

LCu

WWII Lea

WWII Cup

Oth Cup

Friendly

Total

1934/35

4

3

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

4

9

-

-

8

12

1935/36

-

-

34

39

5

3

-

-

-

-

-

-

5

5

1

1

45

48

1936/37

38

26

-

-

2

2

-

-

-

-

-

-

2

2

-

-

42

30

1937/38

33

21

-

-

4

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

3

1

-

-

40

23

1938/39

23

14

-

-

3

4

-

-

-

-

-

-

4

2

1

1

31

21

1939/40

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

27

28

4

1

4

4

9*

7*

44

40

1940/41

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

29

23

8

1

-

-

-

-

37

24

1941/42

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

26

10

5

1

-

-

-

-

31

11

1942/43

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

4

2

12

6

-

-

-

-

16

8

1943/44

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

18

11

-

-

-

-

-

-

18

11

1946/47

12

2

-

-

3

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

2

-

-

-

17

3

1947/48

16

6

-

-

-

-

10

6

-

-

-

-

5

2

1

-

32

14

1948/49

22

12

-

-

1

-

6

4

-

-

-

-

6

3

2

-

37

19

1949/50

20

6

-

-

2

1

6

3

-

-

-

-

1

-

4

7

33

17

1950/51

2

-

-

-

-

-

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

3

-

170

90

34

39

20

12

23

13

104

74

29

9

36

28

18*

16*

434

281

* 7
games with 4 goals in matches which no longer counted in competitions
due to wartime circumstances.

PS
- Any historians of Forres Thistle, Nairn County, Sheffield United,
Forres Mechanics, Blackpool and Third Lanark who can tell me about
Kenny's exploits at other clubs please get in touch, I would love to
know his complete career.Note - I have since learnt of more possible info on his life, but I am waiting on more clarity before publishing...